„My brother went to veterinary school in Brno... First they kicked him out of gymnasium, then he finished it somehow and started vet studies... my sister went to gymnasium, and I went to school in Turnov... One week we were all at home, just my sister was attending the basic school and the only one was studying. Despite it all we managed somehow... my mother´s brother was a carpenter and worked in Průmstav in Pardubice, so my brother checked out of here and went to work with him to Průmstav and they sent him back to school after three years. My sister was feeding pigs in some cooperative in Liberecko region, then she got to Lišný to do glass work. She finished gymnasium and went to pedagogic school. I didn’t like studying at all so I was actually glad when they kicked me out, as I was rather a farmer, then a student... Well and after army service I finished a High School of Agriculture distantly.“
„My brother after finishing veterinary studies, he was swept with due to cadre materials, so he got to Prunéřov in Chomutovsko in Kadaň region, then he was in Mělník and later in 1968, because they worked in food industry, in shipyards in The Hague. There are huge slaughterhouses, so there's got a practice. Then 1968 came and he was tremendously afraid of them, so he stayed there. He had his wife and a son with him. But their little girl of three years remained here, and we had no chance to get her there! I admire my father and mother that they coped with it all. Then a Dutch foreign guy came to visit and we gave him the baby, and I don’t know myself how he transported her to the Netherlands..."
„Although my daddy signed the co-op entry, he´d still say: ‚It will bet it will be a village´s disincentive!‘ So we were supposed to move out to the State cooperative in Šluknov, and it was meant to happen on Sunday and on Friday my daddy committed suicide, but he didn’t make it, as we found him too soon... And he made another attempt on Saturday. He charged himself with a current of three hundred and eighty, but it was a blessing in disguise - just had an immediate emergency and got to the hospital, then to Kosmonosy, so we had him there for about three quarters of a year... And therefore they didn’t move us on Monday. So he gave his life so that we would not have to emigrate. So we stayed here and it all calmed down a bit..."
Forgiving is what matters most
Břetislav Plíva was born in a family of farmers in 1940 in a village of Chuchelna. The family was ordered to move out in 1948. Due to the father´s attempted suicide they could stay at last, but lost their property and land. Břetislav Plíva and his three siblings were kicked out of school. After 1968 his brother emigrated. After revolution the Plívas followed their farming tradition at restituted land.
